Some simple questions on starting a compost pile

I wondered what my son's old dog was doing sniffing about the gift packages. We don't do food. Then what to my wandering eyes should appear.......but ten pounds of Bat Guana for the 2008 garden edition of the docgipe efforts. That's a little different. :) I call it creative functional thinking. :)

WOOHOO! You must have been a very good boy! LOL

Only here could bat guana be a favorite gift, lol. I was tickled pink with my large set of nested planters.

Truely, Cathy4...my garden shears that turn into knives, one straight and one serrated. I'm so excited I wanna go prune something! LOL Talk of manure, green manure, composting leaves..etc causes cheers and great excitement on here, LOL

I got a circle hoe. Wish I didn't have to wait so long to try it out.

Karen

One of you guys or gals got me in trouble! I have met Nancy Jane the creator of those nesting pots. All I can say is she is a super fast talker, good looking blond sales lady. Yep we are cooking up a good stacked pot relationship. Sucked me right in she did if I must say so. :)

docgipe, you are a rouge, sir! More into on those handydandy nesting pots if you please.. and thank you :)

I am not sure of the rules here. To find those nesting pots go with Google and "nesting pots" then try or look for the words "Mary Jane" and NJ Supply. If this is a no no someone tell me and I will edit it out.

Well, I'm gonna check it out now! Thanks :) Allow me to join you if we be in trouble, oh well.
http://www.stackingpots.com/

This message was edited Dec 28, 2007 3:21 PM

♫♪Bad Boys, Bad Boys, What ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you♫♪

LOL it is ok to share links to products so long as you are not involved in the business and using DG for self promotion and free advertising

Mary Jane or NJ is the company I am looking to for some dandy self watering stacking pots. The 24" model is aproximately the size of a wiskey barrel with an open end or cut open in the middle. Three 24" units topped with three 12" units makes a dandy tower. That would provide fifteen units of herbs, flowers or whatever to amuse your patio guests. I see it functional within reach of the picnic table. Just reach over there and grab some rosemary or an onion. :)

This message was edited Dec 29, 2007 9:11 AM

Well, we are almost two weeks into the new year and the winter rains have been keeping the compost pile pretty wet. I decided not to cover it since the redwood needles I used for browns are fast draining and slow to break down. Now I understand better why most people do not use them for compost! But they will break down eventually and I am told that gardening teaches patience...They just forgot to tell me that patience is a very slow grower!

I did take a peek into a couple of forks full and was happy to see my worm buddies have continued to multiply and the munchies have not let up. That must have been some really good hemp soil cause I could have sworn they were all singing songs from the 70's and duck for cover when one of them hollered "it's a bust!" So I put the fork down and left. Don't want them to feel like they need to worry about making bail when they need to be making compost...

The nesting self watering pots have arrived. In all sincerity I must say they are super heavy duty, designed very well and everything they were advertised to be. Be assured that they would be a focal point of substance in anyone's patio design.

Can not show them but you can chase the links from above this post. There you can see the pots and Mary Jane who is bringing them to us. Mary Jane had a dandy price on coir too. I never worked with coir so I drew up my belt line and got some coir to play with too.

It is always good to hear when a product lives up to it's hype! The nesting pots look pretty good to me and hopefully I'll be able to get a few when the budget crunch eases up a bit.

Let us know hoe the coir works out for you. I have never used it and am curious what you think of it.

Yes - please tell. I was told to try this, but had already filled my large containers with a self-made mix. I did receive an amaryllis that used coir for the potting soil. Crumbly when mixed with h2o, and a fine coarse texture, which makes no sense at all!

alrighty then I guess I have to break down and at least go check these out...lol....since I am going to try my hand at some tropicals that will be going in and out of the from summer and winter and the house is dryer inside.
will have to start another change pot to save up LOL

I was driving home today when I saw a long-dead palm tree which had fallen in the road and split open. I think what's inside is coir - it looks like shredded wheat. I pulled over and hopped out with a heavy trash bag (I almost always have them with me for just such an occasion) which I filled. I also found a blue bottle. My Mexican friends and neighbors drove by and waved at the "Americana loca" who was once again out gathering up trash. On the rest of the way home I spotted several more dead palms that will probably fall apart with a little encouragement, rewarding me with more bags of this wonderful stuff.



katiebear

Hey Tex, did you decide to get the pots?

katiebear, good job! who couldn't love getting free coir!

katiebear,

Sounds like perfect stuff for the pile.

Katiebear, you are one resourceful gal! Grats to you! :)

Katie, what a find! And good for you not being afraid to stop and gather the "trash"!!

ATTN ALL EYES AND EARS!!!!! COIR IS NOT FROM PALM TREES. IT COMES FROM THE COCONUT. See the next two paragraphs.

GrowCoir Coconut Coir Fiber

An eco-friendly peat alternative! Made from compressed coconut fiber, GrowCoir exhibits a very good balance of wetting and aeration and a resistance to bacteria and fungus growth. Use as a replacement for soil or as a soil conditioner. GrowCoir coconut fiber works anywhere you would normally use peat moss, rockwool, vermiculite, perlite, or pumice...and worms love it!

Growcoir contains no nutrients. The easiest thing to do is add organic fertilizer to your nutrient solution before you soak the coconut coir fiber. The resulting material is loaded with nutrients and ready to go. GrowCoir holds 8-9 times its weight of water and has a high nutrient-absorption capacity. These characteristics make it an ideal soil amendment. Very economical. One GrowCoir Brick expands to make 5-7 quarts of growing medium. GrowCoir Bales make 10 times as much.

Give the word Coir to Google and read up.

Now the challenge is to see what our Palm Tree Scavenger really has come up with. Maybe Kattie has a cure for beer bellies and such. Maybe a chew will cure the munchies. :)

Thank you, Doc. I wasn't sure if it was the same. I have used coir and it's very similar to the palm stuff so I suspect it can be used the same way. I don't know if the coconut fiber is from the coconuts (or their shells) or the coconut palm.

The palm is not a real tree but a bunch of fibers. The stuff I found looks like vermicelli and the older it is the more easily it reduces to a substance similar to what is sold as coir.

Looks like it will work like coir even if it isn't technically the same thing.

katiebear

I've cut up dead palm trees with a saw, back when we used to live in SoCal. They're a funny tree - no real "wood", just a bunch of fibers inside the trunk.

Those fibers are very light weight and easy to cut through. I'd say they contain a lot of air. The fibers may not technically be "coir", but they ought to work fine in a compost pile.

I'd classify that as a "brown" and not a "green" for composting.

Yep...........are they not classed as a grass?

Something other than a tree is all I know for sure.

kb

I once tried to compost coir basket liners. I pulled and cut them into smaller pieces. In the bin those pieces stayed the same, They didn't change. I pulled them out, spread finished compost, and threw the coir into the next batch. A year later, the pieces were unchanged.

Karen

Karen, that's interesting. I know very little about coir, not a lotta of palm trees in VA. I'll probably have to go have to have a look to satisfy my curiosity. Why would coir used for the amaryllis dissolve and you're didn't break down in the compost? Maybe different types? Interesting.

Coir can be ordered in different degrees of fineness. It is all the same product. Rough or fine it breaks down very slowly therefore it is a good soil structure element as well as other published values.

Commercial growers like it because they hardly ever have to top of potted plants. It holds safely larger amounts of water reducing watering labor costs. Potted plants would require less frequent watering in house or outside all the same.

Thanks docgipe, you are a fountain of information and I really appreciate it! ;)

All I did was snuggle up to my buddy Google. I shall be using coir for the first time in my patio pots this year.

I thought you were snuggling with the new pots.......grin and that cute blond sales lady. Nice looking gal.

The oldest of the stuff I got crumbles easily and I'm using it like coir in my potting mix. If I get a lot more I'll use it in lasagna beds.

kb

I googled coir and found that it is made from the fiber which is in coconut husks. What I have is fiber from the truck of what was probably a fan palm. I'll bet my plants won't know the difference.

kb

I'm betting they won't either!! You'll have to update us after it is in use a while.

Hey S I am thinking about getting a couple but will have to wait for pay day to see what's left after bills

doccat5................good salespersons are natural suckers for good salespersons. I love the race both directions. It is more fun and much more interesting when one knows who one is dealing with. I would rather deal with a business that still has a real head making it tick and a real person making it work. I absolutely hate the big boxes and avoid them if possible.

Tex, if you are like me, waiting for what's left after the bills are paid means you'll never get um'. LOL :)

I'll bet those natives that process or gather the goodies to make coir know that mother nature puts high value, her best quality and care on what protects the seed.

Stem fibers are well known and used for many things from many plants.

That nut falls to earth or water. Gets trampled or eaten by animal and man. Floats away to new earth. Whatever transpires the coir has in it all the needs to begin and support new life through germination to established roots. Over time observation has indicated it will do the same for any plant it is in close association with. I read that!
I would not be smart enough to figure that out. :)